Deck 3: Measurements, Mistakes, and Misunderstandings

Question 1

Explain why the ordering of questions on a survey can create bias in the resulting data.

Answer 1

If one question REQUIRES respondents to think about something that they may not have otherwise considered, then the order in which questions are presented can change the results.

Question 2

Which of the following are examples of measurements?

A)The gender of each member of your statistics class.
B)Your opinion on whether smoking should be banned in all public places (support, oppose, no opinion).
C)The number of deaths in each state in a given year due to accidents.
D)All of the above.

Answer 2

All of the above.

Question 3

Describe one of the issues that you would need to think about when deciding how to measure which supermarket is the 'best' one in town.

Answer 3

Any reasonable answer ok.examples: what do we mean by 'best'? what one person thinks of as 'best' might not mean the same thing to someone else; do we measure it over time, or at one moment in time?

Question 4

What is the biggest problem with having closed questions on a survey or in an experiment?

A)The choice of possible answers is critical and if not done properly, can lead to misleading information.
B)The participants' responses are hard to categorize or summarize.
C)There is no problem with closed questions; they provide the most accurate information by offering certain explicit choices.
D)You have to worry more about how a closed question is worded than how an open question is worded.

Question 5

Name two of the pitfalls listed in your textbook that you have to watch out for when asking questions in a survey or experiment.

Question 6

Name one of the major problems with offering open questions on a survey.

Question 7

What motivates a respondent to understate the true response about an undesirable social habit such as smoking?

A)Wanting to create deliberate bias
B)Desire to please
C)Lack of memory
D)None of the above

Question 8

Which of the following is not one of the pitfalls that can cause problems when asking questions in a survey or experiment?

A)Deliberate bias
B)Desire to please
C)Ordering of questions
D)All of the above are pitfalls

Question 9

If a survey is __________ then the researcher cannot possibly attach your name to your survey results.

Question 10

Political pollsters, who are only interested in surveying people who will actually vote, learned long ago that to determine whether or not someone is a likely voter, it is useless to simply ask them if they plan to vote.Explain why.

Question 11

If a survey is __________ then the researcher can attach your name to your survey results, but promises not to release that information.

Question 12

How much can respondents' answers to survey questions change based on simple changes in wording?

A)They won't change much at all; changes in wording have little impact on the data.
B)Answers can change a great deal, even with small changes in wording.
C)The wording would have to change in a major way, but if it did, the answers would change as well.
D)None of the above.

Question 13

Suppose you want to set up a survey involving only closed questions.Why is it important to first conduct a pilot survey involving open questions?

Question 14

What is the biggest problem with having open questions on a survey or in an experiment?

A)The participants' responses are difficult to summarize or categorize.
B)You have to worry more about how an open question is worded than how a closed question is worded.
C)There is no problem with open questions; they provide the most accurate information about how a person really feels.
D)None of the above.

Question 15

Explain why even the simplest kind of measurement, such as finding your height, still presents complicated issues.

Question 16

What can happen if you don't define your measurement properly?

A)Your data could contain bias.
B)Your data could be inaccurate and inconsistent.
C)Your results could be questioned in a court of law.
D)All of the above.

Question 17

Explain why it is important as a consumer of statistical information to find out whether the questions on a survey or experiment were asked in an open or closed form.

Question 18

Explain the difference between confidentiality and anonymity in a survey situation.

Question 19

A survey question that starts out with the phrase "Do you agree that..." is an example of what?

A)Deliberate bias
B)Unintentional bias
C)Response bias
D)Convenience bias

Question 20

Suppose you designed a survey with only closed questions, and for each question you included 'other' as one of the possible answers.Suppose for one of the questions you found that 75% of the respondents chose 'other'.Explain why this is not a good thing, and what could have been done to prevent it.

Question 21

The U.S.Government regularly reports the unemployment rate.Which of the following is included in the U.S.government's definition of what it means for a person to be unemployed?

A)They don't have a job.
B)They have been actively looking for work in the prior four weeks.
C)They are currently available for work.
D)All of the above are included in the definition.

Question 22

Explain the following statement: "The more variability there is within each group, the more difficult it is to detect a difference between groups."

Question 23

What is important for you to do as a good consumer of statistical information, when examining studies involving hard to measure items such as stress, happiness, or hunger?

Question 24

Which of the following is not an example of a discrete variable?

A)The number of coins in a person's pocket right now.
B)Your exact age.
C)The number of heads that could appear on two flips of a fair coin.
D)All of the above are examples of a discrete variable.

Question 25

A (an) __________question is one in which the respondents are given a list of alternatives from which to choose their answer.

Question 26

How important is the wording of the question in terms of getting a good measurement in a survey or experiment?

A)Extremely important.Poorly worded questions can lead to bias and inaccuracy.
B)Only somewhat important; it's the essence of the issue that matters.
C)It shouldn't matter at all.A question is a question.
D)It depends on the situation.

Question 27

Which of the following is an example of an open question?

A)"Which of the following four issues do you feel is the most important problem facing this country today? If you prefer, you may name a different problem as most important; simply choose 'other' and explain your answer." (Four choices are given, plus 'other'.)
B)"Don't you think it's time that we faced the fact that unemployment is the biggest problem facing this country today?" (Choices are: yes, no, no opinion.)
C)"What do you feel is the most important problem facing this country today?" (No choices offered; participant must fill in the blank.)
D)None of the above.

Question 28

Give three reasons why variability across measurements can occur.

Question 29

Why do IQ tests continue to be surrounded by controversy as a measure of intelligence?

Question 30

If you tried to measure happiness by using an IQ test, which of the following aspects of a good measurement would you be violating?

A)Validity
B)Reliability
C)Unbiasedness
D)None of the above.

Question 31

What is measurement error?

Question 32

A good measurement has to be well __________ in order to give accurate and reliable data.

Question 33

What is the most common method for trying to measure attitudes and emotions?

A)Have respondents read certain statements and determine the extent to which they agree/disagree with the statements.
B)Use totally open ended questions in a face to face interview.
C)Have participants evaluated by a psychotherapist.
D)None of the above.

Question 34

How can a measurement lead to misleading results in a survey?

A)If the measurement leaves out obvious other possible choices.
B)If the 'no opinion' or 'neutral' results are combined with either the positive or negative results to make that group appear larger than it really is.
C)If the questions are worded in a misleading way.
D)All of the above.

Question 35

Which of the following is an example of a closed question?

A)"Which of the following four issues do you feel is the most important problem facing this country today? If you prefer, you may name a different problem as most important; simply choose 'other' and explain your answer." (Four choices are given, plus 'other'.)
B)"Write down in one or two sentences how you feel about this statement: The biggest problem facing our nation today is a lack of presidential leadership."
C)"What do you feel is the most important problem facing this country today?" (No choices offered; participant must fill in the blank.)
D)None of the above.

Question 36

Give an example of a measurement that is reliable but not valid.

Question 37

A (an) __________ question is one in which respondents are allowed to answer in their own words.

Question 38

Explain why it is so difficult to measure the amount of stress in someone's life from a statistical standpoint.

Question 39

When reading about a statistical study involving the amount of stress in a person's life, be sure to find out exactly how stress was __________ by the researchers before deciding whether or not these results are credible.

Question 40

When you read about measurements taken by someone else, you should not assume that they are measuring things the same way you think they should be measured.Give an example from the media where this problem might come up.

Question 41

__________ variables are those for which each individual can be placed into a group but the groups may not have any logical ordering.

Question 42

If you weighed yourself using a bathroom scale that always reads five pounds under the actual weight, which of the following aspects of a good measurement would you be violating?

A)Validity
B)Reliability
C)Unbiasedness
D)None of the above.

Question 43

If you used a 12-inch ruler to measure the distance across a large pond, which of the following aspects of a good measurement would you be violating?

A)Validity
B)Reliability
C)Unbiasedness
D)None of the above.

Question 44

__________ variables are those for which we can record a numerical value and then order the respondents according to those values.